Covering Their Bases Riff/Raff

Cover bands. Say what you will about them, but unlike their more successful and famous counterparts, they’ll always play the hits and won’t be snobby assholes about it. In Covering Their Bases, The A.V. Club asks a cover band to weigh in on a contentious issue regarding its corresponding band. In this edition, bassist Danny Cox of the AC/DC tribute band Riff/Raff talks to The A.V. Club before the band’s show Saturday at the Risqué Café about Bon Scott, dressing up, and why he’s already so invested at 22.

The A.V. Club: First thing’s first—Why AC/DC?

Danny Cox: I came in a little down the road, but the original idea for the band came from Scott [Henderson, “Angus Young”] and Sean [Dunn, “Malcolm Young/Bon Scott”]. Scott was taking lessons from Sean, and he pitched the idea. They started hammering out guitar parts, because AC/DC is built, really, from the guitar up. It took them about eight or nine months to get the other pieces into place.

Each of us in the band has a different reason for being involved, but mine is that I decided that I wanted to get back into playing music, and so I started scouring Craigslist. I found a listing for a bassist in this band, and, when I was 13 or 14, I started playing guitar because I liked Angus Young’s guitar sound. So I took this opportunity to connect with what got me back into playing music in the first place. It’s exciting for me to play this rock that transcends generations. AC/DC’s Black Ice tour is the second-highest grossing tour in the history of the world. They have a power to bring people out to have a good time, and they’re just straight up rock ’n’ roll. It’s not a whole lot of trying to change the world. They’re just trying to have a good time.

AVC: You guys specify that you’re a Bon Scott-era-only band. Why is that?

DC: He died in 1980, right after Highway To Hell came out, and as someone who’s listened to the music pretty extensively at this point, it’s basically because Bon Scott was a singer, whereas Brian Johnson just kind of squeals into the mic. Some people are more familiar with Brian because he came on for Back In Black, but he really doesn’t have the same musicianship. They have the core message of rock stuff, but the band got a little more commercialized after Bon died. I like that lo-fi raw feeling they had from ’75 to ’79, and, from a more practical standpoint, Sean can sing like Bon Scott and not Brian Johnson. You have to have a very special screeching kind of larynx to do the latter.

AVC: When Bon Scott joined, the other members of AC/DC said that he was too old to be in rock. He told the other guys they were too old. How old are all of you?

DC: That’s one of the cool things about the band. We span across a lot of years. I think that’s a testament to the appeal of AC/DC. I’m 22, and I just moved here from Ohio last March. Our oldest member is our drummer, and he’s 42 or something. Sean and John [Bozek, “Phil Rudd”] listened to AC/DC when they were growing up. I did as well, just 20 years after Bon Scott was dead. Each of us came in at sort of a different part of our lives.

AVC: How accurate is your tribute? Do you dress up?

DC: That’s one of the things we try and do. We wear ’70s outfits and try and match what they wore. We play through as close to the same equipment as possible. We try and give people as close to a taste of ’70s AC/DC as we can. There are some inaccuracies in that our Malcolm is also our Bon, but we do the best we can do. We’re committed to playing note for note instead of just turning up the amps and blowing out eardrums.

AVC: Do you do Australian accents?

DC: No accents at the moment, but they’re in the works for later on. Right now it’s just us.

AVC: How many songs do you guys have down? Do you have a favorite?

DC: We can do about 23 songs right now, including a few that Brian Johnson sings, because people like them. We sort of interpret those, though, and they’re done as if Bon Scott were singing them. It’s a little different, then.

Personally, a lot of the bass lines are pretty standard, so I like the ones that are a little more fun, like “A Long Way To The Top,” “Rock And Roll Singer,” and, actually, my favorite to play is “If You Want Blood (You Got It).” I want to run a marathon after, it fills me with so much energy.

Eventually, our goal is to have 40 songs spanning all the years, and then write some originals in the style of AC/DC. Like, putting our own spin on the material we think they’d be writing if Bon were still around.

AVC: Can you sell me on why someone should go see your band? Give me the big pitch.

DC: The best reason to see Riff/Raff is that we’re the most accurate recreation of the live show. If you’re in the mood to go out, have a good night, and get a little rock ’n’ roll, and have some energy, then we’re it. We try and interact with the crowd as much as possible and make it an experience, not chamber music. You’ve got to get involved. It’s the type of music that makes you want to get out of your seat and do something. I’m not sure what. Maybe break a bottle or punch someone in the face? But that’s frowned upon in regular establishments…

AVC: Do you guys do the Mork And Mindy sign off from Highway To Hell?

DC: No. I should look into that, though.

AVC: Lastly, what’s your (maybe not so) rock ’n’ roll day job?

DC: I work at a PR agency doing social media for brands like Motorola and the Got Milk campaign.